picea pungens hoopsii can i take a 2 foot plant out of its pot and plant it in the garden whats the chances of survival how can ihelp this tree thrive in the ground

Hi Mickyt and welcome to GoY. Yes you can unpot your pice and plant it in the ground but I wait for a good month yet before you do so as the weather will be cooler then. When you do take it out of its pot make sure the rot ball isn't so tight that the roots can't spread into the ground. If you are not sure when you remove soak overnight in an even bigger container and then tease out the roots before you plant. Give it a lot, like a couple of gallons, of water when you plant and keep well watered for the next few months. You will need to watch and water next spring and summer if it is dry to give the tree a chance to establish itself.

I'd probably spread an acidic mulch on the soil around the newly planted tree unless your soil is very humus rich.

thankyou moon grower i am not very green fingerd so all the help i can possibly get is a big bonus i have always loved the blue spuce trees and think they have to be the best lookin christmas trees i have tried with a couple of other types of christmas trees but they seemed to get windburnt and die ive heard the picea pungens hoopsii are more hardy against salt air and windburn could you add to that .you say to water wel in with a couple of gallons of water how often do i do this just once then water each day wait till the soil is touch dry can you help i dont want to drown it as they say to make sure its not stood in waeter and what do you mean by humus rich. ive just bought a ph testing kit to make sure the soil is acid for the tree but on the kit it advises you not to test through the summer why is this would it not show a true reading of your soil type i dont want any thing to go wrong this time thats why ineed as much help as i can get i no it will take many years for this tree to grow so so i could do with all your help on protection if any needed against windburn any other tips thank you moon grower

Colorado Spruce (Picea pungens) is one of the most wind resistant spruces--it's grown on the Navajo Reservation, where the wind never stops blowing--but I don't know about salt spray

Neither do I know about salt spray... but if it has survived in the pot I see no reason why it would not survive in the ground. Yes give the newly planted tree a couple of gallons of water and then make sure the soil does not dry out, push your finger down into if it feels moist about an inch down you are okay, if it doesn't water. As to 'humus rich' humus is good friable organic compost that you have, hopefully, made yourself otherwise it can be bought in. When you dig the hole to plant the picea make it twice the size you need and half fill with this humus/compost, this will give the tree a head start. I have no idea why the soil testing kits says not to test in summer - but the soil where you plant you picea must be acidic, it hates lime!

Picea pungens and it's varieties are very susceptible to infestations of spider mites, not normally visible to the naked eye. So if the needles of your tree especially the inner ones turn brown or orange in colour and eventually drop this is more likely to be the problem rather than windburn. Salt spray however is likely to damage the tree if you are living in a coastal area.